Revision History lives in nearly all of the Google Apps, and, in my opinion, it is one of their very best features! To find it, just click on the File menu in Docs, then on Revision History (or if you have a whole bunch of very flexible fingers, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+Shift+G).

Once you’re in there, be sure to click “Show more detailed revisions” to see all you need to see. Clicking on any given time will show you how the document looked at that very moment. Depending who is editing the document, any changes they have made will correspond to the color beside their name in the Revision History list.

Here are some super awesome reasons why you might want to dig into Revision History:

“OOPS! I didn’t mean to erase that!” No worries - Revision History has you covered.

Go back in time and undo that which you shouldn’t have done.

Be sure everyone is carrying his load! In a collaborative student document, you can see how frequently each person’s name shows up in the revision list, and how often they were working.

Detect plagiarism. If a bunch of text suddenly shows up at once in a single revision, chances are someone copied and pasted.

Who waited until the last minute to start working? Hmmm...

Verify their stories. “Sure, Mrs. Brucker. I was working on my essay from the time I got home to the time I went to bed!”

Help students to see their thinking! Go back in time and have them explain why they made the changes they made and how they knew to do it. Metacognition at its finest.

Reward students with proof of their hard work. Showing them their Revision History will help them see how the finished product is far superior to the one with which they started.